PALESTINIAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
PRESS RELEASE
Ref: 67/2003
Date: 15 May 2003
On the 55th anniversary of al-Nakba:
The Palestinian people call upon the international community for justice and immediate implementation of international humanitarian law
Today, 15 May 2003, is the 55th anniversary of Al-Nakba – the tragic uprooting and dispossession of the Palestinian people. On 15 May 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes during large-scale Jewish attacks, using warplanes, tanks and other weapons. Palestinians were also the victims of massacres committed by Zionist gangs in Arab towns and villages. The Jewish people were brought to Palestine from around the world to establish a state on the lands of the indigenous Palestinian people, who were slaughtered and forced to flee to neighboring Arab counties as a result. The Palestinians were again victimized in 1967 when the remainder of Palestine was also occupied by Israeli forces.
This anniversary comes while the Israeli government continues its war against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories. Israeli occupying forces continue to kill and dispossess Palestinians, destroy homes and land and carry out ethnic cleansing in occupied Jerusalem. These acts are reminiscent of al-Nakba, when grave breaches of human rights were committed against women, children, the elderly and the disabled. Furthermore, they represent the continued victimization of the Palestinian people.
Four 55 years, the issue of the Palestine refugees has not been solved, in spite of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 11 December 1948. In light of the international community’s failure to solve this crisis which has left over 5 million Palestinians living as stateless refugees, PCHR reminds the international community of its obligation to enforce international and humanitarian law and put an end to the needless suffering which has already lasted for more than half a century.
The international community, through the United Nations, is legally and morally responsible for enforcing international humanitarian law and human rights law, which includes the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees to return and/or seek compensation. International humanitarian and human rights law further guarantee the Palestinian people the right to self-determination and additional civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
Public Document
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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 - 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail:pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org